Day 3: A few hours North of the Border
Day 3
June 13, 2009
Location: St. John, New Brunswick, Canada
The morning brought with it several changes, a new day, nice weather and a change in time zone. That’s right, faithful reader, the ship had finally meandered its way into the Atlantic Time Zone. We woke up a little early as the ship was maneuvering into port and they decided to use the thrusters for turning, which makes one hell of a racket in the room. After dozing off for a little while, we finally got up and began the day in…
CANADA! Home of the majestic moose.
We disembarked and made our way down the gangplank and through the port building where some photographers were posted. One had with him a fisherman in a yellow getup, a la Gorton’s. And the other was a little lectern with a moose head on it. The photographer notified us the moose’s name was TIMMY! Once out of the port building itself, they had a tent set up with many stalls filled with assorted wares. Yes, they had everything from souvenirs, tchotchkies and lame tshirts to maple syrup and handcrafted art. Next we ventured onto the streets of St. John. There was a restaurant, a guy in a lobster suit, a kid selling lemonade, a guy playing the keyboard and a gift shop, and that was about it. We went in the shop, bought some things and then went to explore more. Down the street there was some sort of festival going on (it may have even been at a festival place). Nearby a walk for ALS was about to start and a cover band was playing for the participants. From there we went inside to Market Square, a local food court, museum, store-type place. By this point we were pretty hungry and decided instead of spending money at a restaurant, we should eat lunch on the ship. It would also give us an opportunity to change clothes since it was hotter than expected.
We got back on the ship and ate some lunch. Then instead of going back out like we had planned, we took a nap. Apparently all of the excitement of Canada wore us out. By the time we got back up it was about 4:30 and too late to go back ashore and do anything worth while before having to be back at 5:30. So we bid Canada adieu and got ready to stuff our faces (since that is the one constant of any cruise). We made it to dinner just as the ship was setting sail. The food was good, as usual, and the waitstaff put on some sort of La Bamba dance number that we couldn’t see because our table was out of the way, which was good unless you wanted to see if something was going on.
After dinner, many went to go watch the sunset, but we got casual portraits, all of which turned out horrible. After that, it was that evening’s showtime. That night’s show was the “Magic Cat” himself, Bob Brizendine. Magic, comedy, balloons, and the money in fruit trick. We laughed, we oohed and ahhed and then it was over.
Then, as a treat before bedtime, we took advantage of something else we hadn’t yet on this trip. Free soft serve ice cream and frozen yogurt! Up to the machines we went and discovered something silly. Their soft serve machines did not have the star-shaped die so the ice cream comes out in a fun shape. Without that one little piece of nozzle, the chocolate came out, and, well, it looked like poop. So with a heaping bowl of poo-shaped ice cream, we retired to our stateroom and enjoyed our frozen dairy treats before going to bed.